


In which Nico has no money to get Will a Christmas present

by buoyantsaturn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Christmas, Established Relationship, M/M, as in this was supposed to be posted on christmas whoops, kind of, nico teaches will self-defense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 07:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9113887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: That title makes it sound like this whole thing is gonna be smut but instead they're fist fighting each other. Kind of.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I was going through my folder of fics and remembered that i never posted this one??? as long as i make it in before new years, then its practically still christmas, right??

Nico knocked on the door of the Apollo cabin on Will’s day off, bundled up in a puffy winter coat as a gentle snowfall drifted behind him. He held out a hand when Will opened the door, saying, “Come with me.”

Will nodded, retreating back into the cabin for his shoes, coat, hat, and gloves, before stepping out into the cold air where his boyfriend was waiting. Nico reached for his hand as they walked off the porch, frowning at the mittens covering Will’s fingers. 

“How am I supposed to hold your hand like this?” Nico asked.

“How am I supposed to avoid getting frostbite if I hold your icicle fingers?” Will replied.

Nico huffed, pulling at the elastic around Will’s wrist and sliding his hand into the mitten to entwine his fingers with Will’s.

“You’re lucky these are stretchy mittens, or else you’d be buying me new ones,” Will told him, squeezing his fingers.

“I’d buy you normal gloves with fingers,” Nico responded, and pulled him toward the arena.

“What’re we doing here?” Will asked when they walked inside.

Nico shed his coat, tossing it on the ground near the door. “I wanna teach you how to sword fight.”

Will frowned. “Why?”

Nico rubbed the palms of his hands against his jeans. Will wasn’t sure if the pink on his cheeks was from the cold or embarrassment - probably a bit of both. “I don’t really have any way of buying you a present for Christmas, so this was the best thing I could think of, because everyone can use some self-defense training - especially us. And even if you don’t like it, at least you get to...spend the day with me?”

Will beamed. “I would love to spend the day with you,” Will told him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “But you’re gonna have to go easy on me. I’ve conveniently had a shift in the infirmary every time my cabin’s gotten any lessons, so I literally know nothing.”

“It’ll be fine,” Nico said with a smile.

 

It was not fine.

Will almost decapitated Nico a few times, even though he shouldn’t have even been aiming for Nico’s head, and they both managed to catch a few slightly-more-than-minor cuts and scrapes.

“Maybe jumping straight to swords was a mistake,” Nico said when they were taking a break. Will, thankfully having been carrying around his first aid kit as always, was bandaging up one of the cuts on Nico’s forearm. “We could try something different, maybe? No weapons, this time, just hand-to-hand?”

“No weapons is probably a good idea,” Will agreed.

Once they were both bandaged up, they returned to the center of the room. Nico tried giving Will a few pointers - how to punch without breaking any bones, where to hit that would cause the most pain with the least amount of pressure, how to block a punch without opening himself up to another - but Will insisted that he wouldn’t be hurting Nico again anyway and refused to listen.

The two squared off, and Nico threw the first punch. He wasn’t aiming to land the hit, but Will grabbed his wrist anyway, twisting until Nico’s entire body reacted to the movement. Nico felt himself being pulled off balance and fell to the ground, still feeling a shock of pain travelling up his arm. 

“I’m sorry,” Will started immediately, tugging Nico back up to his feet. “That was my first reaction, I wasn’t expecting--”

“It’s okay,” Nico told him with an easy grin. “I wasn’t expecting it either, clearly, but that was a good reaction. That’s what you  _ should _ do. Let’s go again; this time I’ll be ready.”

This time, Nico aimed his punch higher, towards Will’s head, but Will reacted just as quickly. He grabbed Nico’s arm again, this time using his momentum to spin him around and pin his arm behind his back. He released his grip as soon as Nico made a sound of pain.

“Gods, why are you so good at this?” Nico asked, rolling his shoulder to try and rid it of the pained feeling.

Will shrugged. “I guess I just know the human body well enough to know what would disarm an attacker the best?” Nico started rubbing at his shoulder, frowning in thought. “Should we stop? I’m obviously hurting you.”

Nico shook his head. “I’m fine,” he insisted. “Let’s try one more time.”

They squared off again, though this time Nico moved much faster than he had before, hoping to catch his boyfriend off guard. His swung with his opposite fist in an effort to trick him, but Will still caught his arm easily, pulling him forward and off his feet, keeping a hold of his arm as Nico’s chin smacked onto the ground. Will knelt down, still holding Nico’s arm in a twist and apparently not realizing he was causing his boyfriend pain. “We should probably stop.”

“You should stop holding my arm like that,” Nico hissed.

Will dropped his arm like it was on fire, pausing for a short moment before reaching out to rub Nico’s shoulders. “I have a better idea of how we can spend time together, you know,” he said.

“What’s that?” Nico asked, not making any move to rise from the ground.

“There’s a TV in my cabin and a very large supply of Christmas movies,” Will answered. “Everyone else is at the infirmary today, and I can give you your present while we’re there.”

Nico hummed for a second as if considering. “Deal,” he said finally, and rolled onto his back, holding up outstretched arms. “Help me up first, though.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!


End file.
